1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a lever fitting connector for engaging a male connector with a female connector or disengaging the male connector from the female connector with a low strength by a rotating operation of a lever.
2. Background Art
In the past, there has been adopted a lever fitting connector to reduce a engaging operational strength by using a lever when connecting male and female connectors each having multiple terminals (see, for example, Patent Reference 1).
The above-mentioned lever fitting connector is as shown in FIG. 11. The lever fitting connector 100 shown in FIG. 11 includes a male connector 121, a lever 122 which is pivotally mounted on a boss 127 provided on side faces 125 of this male connector 121, and a female connector 123 to be connected to the male connector 121. The lever 122 has a matched pair of right and left side walls 128 and operational part 129 for connecting the side walls at a rear side.
In the above-mentioned lever fitting connector 100, when the operational part 129 of the lever 122 is pressed toward the female connector, the male connector 121 is contained into a hood portion 132 of the female connector 123 to connect the male connector 121 to the female connector 123.
In addition, the above-mentioned lever fitting connector 100 is provided with disengagement-prevention ribs 126 extending in a fitting direction of the lever fitting connector 100 at end portions of the side faces 125 of the male connector 121 so as to prevent the lever from disengaging from the boss 127 due to the moment generated by the rotating operation of the lever 122. This disengagement-prevention rib 126 includes a long hole 126A extended along the fitting direction, and a projecting portion 128A, which is provided on a head of the side wall 128 and on a opposite side of the operational part 129 of the lever 122, is inserted into the long hole 126A. According the configurations, the pair of the side walls 128 of the lever 122 are prevented from expanding in a separating direction each other. Thus, it is possible to prevent the lever 122 from disengaging from the boss 127.
Further, the above-mentioned lever fitting connector 100 is provided with a balance defining piece 138, having a reactivity and a flexibility, which expands rearward, on a lower portion at a rear side of the lever 122 so as to keep a balance of the lever 122 until an early step of fitting the connectors 121, 123.
[Patent Reference 1] JP-2000-252007A
Since the above-mentioned lever fitting connector 100 is mainly used in a narrow space, such as a vehicle, etc., it could be difficult to operate the lever 122 depending on a rounding direction of the wires connected to the connectors 121, 123. Therefore, it has been desired to provide a lever fitting connector which adopts a reversible type capable of selecting a mounting direction of the lever 122 from right and left directions depending on the rounding direction of the wires.
In designing the reversible-typed lever fitting connector, the shape of the connector on which the lever is mounted is formed in symmetric with respect to a pivot line of this lever. However, in the above-mentioned lever fitting connector 100, the disengagement-prevention portion 126 extending in the fitting direction is provided on one ends of the side faces 125 of the male connector 121. If this disengagement-prevention portions is also provided on the other ends of the side faces 125 in symmetric, it could be a problem that the disengagement-prevention portion 126, positioned at a side of the operational part 129 of the lever 122, interferes the rotating operation of the lever 122. In this way, in a lever fitting connector having a preventing function of lever-disengagement, it has not been easy to provide a configuration capable of arbitrarily selecting a mounting direction of the lever from right and left directions.
Further, in the above-mentioned lever fitting connector 100, the balance defining portion 138 is provided to project toward a fitting clearance with the female connector 123. Thus, there has been a possibility that this balance defining portion 138 is broken, and stuck with the wires and the hood portion 132, etc. of the female connector 123.